Thursday, December 1, 2011

The Astros are kind of messing up this Tal Smith thing...

How is it possible that Smith will receive only two weeks’ severance pay from the club, according to major-league sources? Because the Astros’ previous owner, Drayton McLane, did not arrange a more enticing golden parachute for Smith with the new owner, Jim Crane. Smith’s contract as president of baseball operations expired on Oct. 31, sources said, but he continued working for the club as an at-will employee...

...Smith...received the equivalent of one month’s salary when McLane awarded bonuses to Astros’ employees upon the closing of the sale, sources said. That bonus, plus the two weeks’ severance, is all he will receive after serving the Astros in all five decades of their existence, including the past 18 years under McLane.

I'm not saying we should start a Kickstarter project to get Tal some money to get his fishing license, but if Crane felt it necessary to give him a bigger severance, I'd be okay with it.

This whole Tal Smith story is absurd. Smith seems to be the only guy in the universe who didn't realize his time was up. If he was so worried about his job security, he shouldn't have been watching college basketball in Hawaii when the new owners took over. That's the only reason he was "fired by phone." If he was in the office, they would have told him on Day 1, like they did with Wade.

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